Museums and Galleries: South West

Robert Key:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what grants were awarded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council to non-hub designated museums in the South West in 2009. [321199]

Margaret Hodge:
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has supplied the information in the table of Renaissance grants awarded to non-designated museums in the South West in 2008-09.

17 Mar 2010 : Column 891W

Designated collection holder

Grant (£)

Cheltenham Art Gallery

14,608

Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum

14,133

Tank Museum

15,000

Wiltshire Heritage Museum

15,000

National Waterways Museum

15,000

Roman Bath Museum

10,000

In the 2009-10 financial year, two further grants have been announced by the MLA for non-designated museums in the South West and shown in the table.

Designated collection holder

Grant (£)

Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum

100,000

Tank Museum

50,000

Theatre: Young People

Mr. Sanders:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps his Department is taking to encourage young people to use the (a) free theatre tickets available under the A Night Less Ordinary Scheme and (b) the National Theatre Entry Pass. [320524]

Margaret Hodge:
The Department provided Arts Council England with £2.5 million to deliver the A Night Less Ordinary scheme. This included a budget for the promotion of the scheme, including the creation of the website:

Individual theatres were also assessed on their plans to market the scheme in their local area during the application process.

The National Theatre Entry Pass scheme is administered solely by the theatre. The Department does not centrally promote either scheme.

Mr. Sanders:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many young people have registered for the National Theatre Entry Pass to date. [320660]

Margaret Hodge:
To date, 14,814 young people have registered for the National Theatre Entry Pass.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Agriculture: Subsidies

Mr. Laurence Robertson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment he has made of the performance of the Rural Payments Agency in making payments to farmers on time; and if he will make a statement. [321975]

Jim Fitzpatrick:
As of 25 February 2010 over 98,000 farmers from the estimated total claimant population of 107,500 have received a full Single Payment Scheme (SPS) payment from the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). 90 per cent. of the estimated total fund of £1.86 billion has now been paid for SPS 2009.

17 Mar 2010 : Column 892W

Some 2,000 of the remaining claims have been processed and resulted in no payment being due. This situation arises where, for example, farmers hold entitlements for the wrong area type, have submitted duplicate claim forms or will receive payment from the devolved Administrations.

Processing now continues on approximately 7,500 claims where no payment has been made to date and RPA is working to finalise these as quickly as possible. Some of these are complex cases involving probate, business partnership changes and domestic issues. It is likely that work on these claims will reveal that some will not be eligible for payment. Claims which are confirmed will be paid as soon as possible.

The agency met its first 2009 SPS target of making 75 per cent. of full payments by value, six weeks ahead of its formal target date of the end of January 2010. It has now met the second of its formal targets of making 90 per cent. of full payments, by value, five weeks ahead of its formal date of the end of March 2010.

RPA is on track to meet its EU target of making 95.238 per cent. of payments by value by the close of the payment window on 30 June 2010.

The following table shows the agency continues to improve in making SPS payments.

Scheme year

75 per cent. of payments made by value

90 per cent. of payments made by value

2007

22 February

21 May

2008

22 January

16 March

2009

17 December

24 February

Processing continues on claims from all previous scheme years where no payment has been made to date and RPA is working to finalise these as quickly as practicable. The following table shows a summary of these claims.

Single Payment Scheme year

Number of claims outstanding as at 10 March 2010

Number of claims not received full payment as at 10 March 2010

2005

3

574

2006

6

629

2007

33

55

2008

84

100

Total

(1)126

1,358

(1) Included within the 126 outstanding claims are three (2005), five (2006), 29 (2007) and 64 (2008) claims that are complex cases involving probate, business partnership changes and domestic issues. It is likely that work on these claims will reveal that some will not be eligible for payment.

Claims which have not received a full payment may be due a top-up payment once their entitlements have been reviewed. Further such claims may arise from data correction work within the Rural Payments Agency.

17 Mar 2010 : Column 893W

Animal Feed

Lembit Öpik:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether his Department has estimated the effect on (a) the price of animal feed and (b) the population of fish of a reduction in the organic content of organic animal foods to below 90 per cent. following the reclassification of fish as a non-agricultural ingredient; and if he will make a statement. [322660]

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Under EU rules, up to 5 per cent. of the diet of organic livestock other than herbivores may currently consist of non-organic feed. After 1 January 2012 all organic livestock must be fed entirely on organically produced feed and there are concerns about providing a 100 per cent. organic diet with a balanced protein content for pigs and poultry because of the difficulties with sourcing the correct protein ingredients for feed for these animals. We are currently investigating with our Advisory Committee on Organic Standards how the use of fishmeal might contribute to a solution for the problem, including the effects on the price of animal feed and the sustainability of fish stocks from which the fishmeal is sourced.

Animal Welfare

Mr. David Anderson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he plans to reply to the correspondence from Mr. Richard D. Hall of Blaydon on animal mutilation phenomena. [321206]

Jim Fitzpatrick:
DEFRA and its agency, Animal Health, received several items of correspondence from Mr. Hall between May and September 2009, both directly and through my hon. Friend. I replied to my hon. Friend on 19 October, 2009 and regret the intervening delay.

Mr. Drew:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent representations he has received on the use of bolt guns to end the life of (a) domestic animals and (b) livestock; and if he will make a statement. [322281]

Jim Fitzpatrick:
In the last six months we have received three letters from members of the public and 15 from Members of Parliament on behalf of constituents regarding the use of bolt guns to end the lives of domestic animals. We have received no such letters on the use of bolt guns on livestock.

Biomass: Air Pollution

Mr. Ian Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs by what mechanisms emissions from biomass boilers will be made compliant with his Department's Air Quality Strategy. [322265]

Jim Fitzpatrick:
The aim of the air quality strategy for the UK is to protect public health by providing mechanisms for compliance with a number of air pollution concentration objectives.

The impact of emissions of biomass boilers on air concentrations of pollutants will depend on the dispersion 17 Mar 2010 : Column 894W
characteristics of the installations and the number of installations affecting any particular location. Guidance has been provided to local authorities, through the British Standards Institution and the Institute of Gas Engineers and Managers on how to apply good design and placement of chimney location and exit height to prevent significant impacts of units on air quality.

Local authorities, in order to protect public health, have a number of existing powers to guide the outcome of developments incorporating biomass boilers through both the planning system and powers under the Clean Air Act 1993. Taken together with the Renewable Heat Incentive, which encourages the uptake of cleaner appliances, the impact of biomass boilers on air quality should be managed to avoid concentrations in excess of air quality objectives.

Bovine Tuberculosis

Mr. Laurence Robertson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment he has made of trends in the incidence of bovine tuberculosis in (a) England and (b) Gloucestershire; and if he will make a statement. [321974]

Jim Fitzpatrick:
The latest bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) figures available for the first 11 months of 2009, compared with the equivalent period in 2008, show the following:

England

Gloucestershire

Reactors slaughtered

2008

23,631

2,169

2009

23,068

2,031

New herd breakdowns

2008

3,766

273

2009

3,125

198

Confirmed new incidents per 100 test in unrestricted herds

2008

5.46

13.69

2009

4.69

10.93

Notes:
1. Data from VetNet are produced three months in arrears and the latest report available is for November 2009. Comparative 2008 data are shown up to November 2008. Therefore data cannot be provided for the last three months.
2. Data from VetNet are provisional and subject to change as more data become available. Source:
VetNet-Animal Health Database

Although the apparent year-on-year reduction in bTB incidence headline indicators (despite the increase in numbers of herds and animals tested for bTB in 2009) is welcome, the Government remain cautious and does not want to read too much into the short-term disease trends, given the cyclical and multifactorial nature of bTB incidence in the endemic areas. The incidence of bTB in parts of England is still far too high for EU standards and we continue to take the fight against the disease very seriously, not least because of the serious impact it has on farmers.

17 Mar 2010 : Column 895W

We have a range of measures in place to help control spread of the disease including routine cattle testing, use of the gamma interferon blood test in prescribed circumstances, pre-movement testing, zero tolerance on movement of cattle with overdue tests and encouraging use of husbandry measures. In addition, vaccination of cattle and/or badgers is potentially a valuable tool as part of a range of measures to control bTB. A Badger Vaccine Deployment Project will take place in six high incidence areas each of 100 sq km (25,000 acres) in England, starting in summer 2010.

Breeding of Dogs Act 1991

Andrew Rosindell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Breeding of Dogs Act 1991; [322458]

(2) what funding his Department provides to local authorities to inspect outbuildings for breeding establishments under the Breeding of Dogs Act 1991; [322460]

(3) what recent assessment he has made of the incidence of illegal dog breeding taking place in residential properties and outbuildings; [322461]

(4) what recent representations he has received from animal welfare charities on backstreet breeding of dogs; and if he will make a statement; [322462]

(5) what estimate he has made of the number of dog breeding farms in England. [322524]

Jim Fitzpatrick:
We have not made any recent assessment as to the effectiveness of the Breeding of Dogs Acts1991. Any future assessment we make of current dog breeding legislation will be conducted in parallel with our consideration on the two recent reports into dog breeding by Professor Sir Patrick Bateson and the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare. We have regular discussions with animal welfare groups on a range of welfare topics, including the breeding of dogs.

We have provided no such funding to local authorities to inspect outbuildings for breeding establishments, we have made no assessment of the incidence of illegal dog breeding taking place on residential properties and outbuildings, and we have made no estimate of the number of dog breeding farms in England.